FG Reviews Foreign Missions Over Debt Burden

The Federal Government has inaugurated a 13-man Presidential committee to review the nation’s diplomatic missions worldwide, over lingering indebtedness.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, inaugurated the committee, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and tagged Presidential Committee on the Review of Number and Strategy for Resourcing Nigeria’s Diplomatic Missions Worldwide.

He lamented that the lingering indebtedness being faced by the foreign missions has affected the nation’s integrity negatively.

SGF noted that the report of the Committee would enable Mr President to tackle the root causes of the critical state of affairs of the Diplomatic Missions and its impact on the image of Nigeria on the international arena.

According to him, “As we are all aware, our Diplomatic Missions around the world are currently faced with multifaceted challenges following, among others, the scale of perennial indebtedness they find themselves. This poses attendant damage to our nation’s integrity. Consequent upon these, Mr President approved the constitution of this Presidential Committee”.

He added that the Committee has the mandate of reviewing all previous reports on the establishment of foreign missions and measures taken to effectively and economically manage Nigeria’s Mission; and to also identify challenges facing those Missions and make appropriate recommendations on their sustainability.

He said that some of the cost-saving measures taken by the previous administrations in reviewing the foreign missions had not yielded the desired results, hence the constitution of the Committee.